NGOs sketch path to sustainable consumption

…The EEB’s blueprint is about shifting from “peak everything [peak oil, peak water, peak food etc.]” and reaching Earth’s limits to the notion of contraction and simplification, Fedrigo explained. Meanwhile, the transition needs to be embraced “in an intelligent and planned way to avoid chaos,” she underlined.

Arnold Tukker, one of the report’s authors, called for limits to be placed on the use of natural resources. Emission and resource-use caps, standard setting, charges and energy-performance targets can be powerful policy measures, as can limitations on advertising and shifting taxes from labour to resources, he argued.

The report also calls for current economic recovery and stimulus packages to become “transition packages” towards a different societal and economic set-up, built on renewable energies, sustainable buildings, agriculture and transport.